Chapter 2: First trouble

It took nearly 3 days of being jostled around inside the wagon with but the slight relief of camping for the night before the group reached the village. Ascard Village was a farming town located at the foot of a hill and while it wasn't large, it was well populated and traveled by adventurers and merchants alike.

However, lately, the village had seen an increase in the number of monster encounters. They had sent a request to the local adventurers guild who dispatched some level 2 adventurers to help. For a while, it had been enough... until the adventurers noticed that the monsters were still increasing both in number and qualities.

They knew that they had to ask for reinforcement but outside of Orario, level 3 adventurers were extremely scarce. Therefore, they had no choice but to send a request to the adventurer guild in Orario.

Bell and Lefiya couldn't help sighing in relief as they saw the village start to appear in their view despite the darkness of the night. Though the wagon they riden had been equipped with suspensions to ease the shock as they traversed rough terrains, it was still far from a comfortable ride for the passengers.

In fact, the prospect of having a proper bed to sleep on for the night made them just a little more eager to jump off the moment the wagon reached the village gate. Once his passengers disembarked with their luggage, the driver wasted no time turning his wagon with but a brief "Good luck" before leaving. If they didn't know better, both human and elf could have sworn that he was escaping from someone or something.

Still, they shrugged as they made their way to the village gate where they were expectedly stopped by a pair of spear-wielding village guards, one of them had a pair of dark dog-like ears on top of his head, characteristic of a beastman, spoke authoritatively

"Halt, please state your purpose for entering our village."

Bell stepped forward while taking out the permission letter issued by the guild for their purpose,

"We are adventurers from Orario, the guild had received your village's request for assistance and sent us here."

The beastman guard took the letter and read them briefly before nodding toward his partner who visibly relaxed as he pulled his spear back. The guard returned the letter to Bell as he spoke,

"Everything seemed in order, you may enter. However... this is late at night and the mayor has rested, he won't see you until tomorrow morning. I suggest you went to the inn and rest for the night."

Both adventurers nodded in understanding and the guard, Ral, gave them basic directions to find the inn while his friend opened the gate to allow them entry. With his help, neither of them had a problem finding the building. As they entered, they found out that the inn had also doubled as a bar.

Noticing that Lefiya didn't seem accustomed to the situation, Bell decided to take charge as he walked forward straight toward the barkeeper. Probably noticing that, Lefiya followed behind him as he spoke to the man,

"Good evening, sir. Do you have room for the night?"

The bartender looked up from the glass he was cleaning as he answered,

"You two are travelers?"

"Adventurers, we received a quest from the guild to deal with the monster raid you've been experiencing."

The bartender raised his eyebrows as he answered back,

"Huh? You two look awfully young... you're not pulling my legs, are you?"

"No, sir. I'm Bell Cranel, level 4 adventurer and she's Miss Lefiya Viridis, also level 4."

"Is that so... wait... Bell Cranel... Lefiya Viridis... could it be... don't tell me..."

"Yes?"

The bartender's eyes widened as he seemed to be looking at both of them with clear eyes for the first time,

"Red eyes... white hair... look like a rabbit... and she... orange hair... elven long ears... you two... you're Rabbit Foot and Thousand Elf?!"

This time both Bell and Lefiya widened their eyes in surprise as the bartender suddenly went excited. He grabbed Bell's hand with both arms as he spoke with nearly sparkling eyes,

"So you are! This is great! I've heard of you two from my cousin in Orario! He said you two were promising new stars among the adventurers! Now, this is a sight for sore eyes... with you two here, these annoying monsters should be solved soon!"

"Ah... umm... thank you... I guess..."

It took a while before the bartender finally calmed down enough for the conversation to continue. He cleared his throat before speaking again,

"Anyway... you're looking for a room for the night... well... I'm sorry but... it's just... we only have 1 room left..."

Bell and Lefiya's eyes widened as they heard the news,

"Eh?"

"Eh?!"

The bartender shook his head apologetically as he continued,

"You see... this is a small village and we were never expecting to have this many people staying for a long period of time due to the monster problem... Therefore, most of my rooms here were already filled with adventurers..."

"That's..."

"Can we have a spare bed at least?"

Once again the bartender shook his head as he answered,

"The spare beds had been taken by the clinics, we got a lot of injured people, adventurers and villagers alike due to the monsters... I'm afraid..."

Bell turned toward Lefiya who by now had paled considerably before closing his eyes as he apologized to the elf internally. He then turned toward the bartender as he spoke,

"... we'll take it..."

Lefiya's eyes widened as she was about to complain but Bell glanced back at her almost asking her to believe in him. Seeing the tension between them, the bartender seemed to hesitate as he asked once again,

"... are you sure... Miss Viridis seemed..."

"We'll take it."

"... If you say so... it's 1500 Valis for the night. 2000 if you want breakfast and dinner as well."

Bell took out a money bag from his backpack and placed it on the table as he answered the man,

"2000 for now… we'll have that dinner in an hour."

The bartender took the bag and placed it under the counter before handing Bell the key to the room,

"Your room is on the second floor, there's a number on the door. I'll call you when the dinner is ready."

Bell nodded as he took the key and turned to see the fuming Lefiya behind him. However, it seemed that she didn't intend on making a scene… yet she kept silent, for now. Instead, she followed Bell up the stairs and let him lead her to the room, their room.

It didn't take long before Bell managed to find the right door and unlocked it, allowing them to enter. He flicked the switch for the magic lamp on the ceiling which illuminated the whole room. The two looked inside the room and noted that while the room was barely furnished beyond the basic necessity, it was clean and spacious enough. Once they entered the room and Bell closed the door behind them, Lefiya wasted no time in giving him a piece of her mind,

"What the hell are you planning, Cranel?! If you're suggesting that we can share a bed, you can forget it! I'd sooner camp outside than let you anywhere close to my body! God knows what you going to do in my sleep!"

Bell immediately raised his hands in front of him in his rather unsuccessful attempt to calm the elf. However, he knew that she wouldn't let him explain until she finished her tirade. It was quite a while before it did finally end and gave the boy chance to explain himself,

"Umm… Miss Lefiya, I was about to explain… this room is wide enough for both of us… you can take the bed… I… I can spread my sleeping bag on the floor… I… I promise that I won't do anything to you."

"Like hell I will believe your promises! Do you take me for a fool?! You better have more in plan than that of I'll be kicking you out of that window, right now!"

"Well… umm… I… umm…."

"3… 2… 1….!"

Seeing that the elf was really about to grab her staff to cast her spell, Bell immediately shouted,

"Tie me up!"

"Huh?"

"Tie me up! You can… tie me up while I was sleeping! That way, I wouldn't be able to do anything!"

Lefiya hmm'd as she considered the suggestion while Bell was visibly sweating nervously at the prospect that the girl might disagree. Finally, the elf raised her eyes to look toward the boy in front of her as she answered,

"Fine. We'll go with that for now… any chance of you daring to approach me at night, I'll blast you with my magic. Don't test me."

Bell released a sigh he didn't realize was holding as the elf finally spoke,

"Out."

"Eh?"

"Get out, I want to change my clothes."

Bell couldn't help the blush that heat his face as he stammered,

"Oh… O-okay…."

Without further ado, he hurriedly ran out of the room as if escaping. Once she was alone in the room, Lefiya sighed as she muttered,

"Geez… the quest hasn't even officially started and I'm already regretting volunteering for it…."

However, her mind soon showed the thought of Aiz placed in her situation and anger flared inside her as she shook her head,

"No, it's better that it's not Aiz-sama who has to share a room with this perverted lecherous human… for Aiz-sama… I'll endure this shame…."

A/N: I made a slight change in chapter 2. I decided to refer Valis value to Japanese Yen. at 30,000 yen, Lefiya's bag cost about the same as some common luxury bag. Expensive but not unattainable by middle income people.